Site Mobile Navigation

In Body Scans, Less Attitude Please

THERE was robust reader reaction to last week’s column describing those body scan machines that the Transportation Security Administration is busily installing in airports — and my experience with one of them.

I can only summarize the responses here and offer a few excerpts. But in general, readers said they wished some screeners at the body scan machines were nicer and did not order travelers around as if they were jailhouse perps. “With the new scanners, the agents have gotten really bossy,” Martha Keith wrote.

Meanwhile, I heard from a lot of readers who have metal implants like hip or knee replacements, who were previously subject to physical pat-downs after they set off metal detector alarms. “I actually seek out the scanner,” said Roy Brunett, who had a hip replacement. He said the new technology “saves me lots of time and aggravation.”

On the other hand, the body scanners, which detect mass rather than just metal, have introduced complications for some women who are breast cancer survivors. One woman, who asked that her name not be used, said a female screener had asked her to step aside after a body scan. “She asked if I had had any surgery to my chest area, and I responded that I had had a mastectomy and that I wore a silicone breast prosthesis. She thanked me, said, ‘Affirmative’ into the headset.”

Asked about the readers’ comments, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, Greg Soule, said passengers with medical devices outside the body, like a breast prosthesis or a colostomy bag, “will be offered a private screening.”

By far, most readers wrote to complain about screeners who were rude. Helaine Fendelman said she felt as if she were in a cage as a screener “yelled at me about why I wasn’t paying attention to those who had proceeded me” through the machine.

Deb Green, who saw a screener talking by headset with the unseen person at the image monitor, said she felt, “from the comments and smirks, that they were appraising each of the women going through.”

Photo

Credit
Chris Gash

Tom Taylor had a tissue in his pocket and, he said, a screener ordered him rudely, “Take it out!” He added, “The guy seemed about one degree from calling in reinforcements over the Kleenex.” Elizabeth Wiley wrote of the “generally bullying air of the experience.” Melissa Hickey said a screener “barked orders at me as if I were a common criminal.”

Bob Michelet agreed with my view that being ordered around was a “boot camp-like experience,” as he put it. Ed Lyons concurred, but said that so far, he hasn’t heard anyone referred to, drill sergeant-style, as a “maggot” — though, he joked, “it’s only a matter of time.”

Procedures for standing in place and raising arms during the body scan could be more clearly and politely explained, many readers wrote. Mary P. Koss said she didn’t like being “yelled at” after a screener decided her fingers were not forming a triangle as instructed while she held her hands over her head. “When I exited the machine, I was yelled at again to stand in place,” she said.

Richard H. Lawrence Jr. said he had to take his lip balm from a pocket before being scanned and give it to a screener, who “got all authoritarian” when he asked if he could open it himself for sanitation reasons.

To those readers, Mr. Soule of the security agency responded, “T.S.A. strives to ensure that all passengers are treated with the respect and courtesy they deserve.”

Readers generally seemed to be well aware of the machines and the issues involved, and many said they were receptive to using them once they felt comfortable with the prospect.

From the readers’ mail, I found other major concerns, besides being treated rudely by screeners who themselves are getting used to the new process. They worried about privacy (the machines see through clothing), and the possible harmful effects of frequent radiation (one of two types of machines being installed uses X-rays, but at low, safe levels, the security agency says).

And because all items, not just metal, must be removed from pockets before screening, readers said they were concerned about not being able to see their personal possessions, like wallets, while standing in the confines of the machines. And lots of readers said that being scanned took more time, and they worry that the checkpoint wait will increase as the new machines replace the old magnetometers.

“I can see where they will cause lines to back up, especially when nonfrequent fliers are introduced into the mix,” Angelo Mazza wrote.

E-mail: jsharkey@nytimes.com

A version of this article appears in print on June 22, 2010, on Page B4 of the New York edition with the headline: In Body Scans, Less Attitude Please. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe